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19 February 2013

Random Thoughts

Last year the lovely Cyphomandra, who I am lucky to call a good friend, wrote a novella for Yuletide called Somehow. It is based on The Bagman's Gambit by The Decemberists. I finished it this morning and...oh it's good. I loved the characters and the plot twists...and if you feel like reading something different I would definitely recommend it! (FYI - Cyphomandra recommended that I listen to the song first - I read the lyrics *grin* - and it definitely helped set the scene!)

I'm curious - how do you track books...not the ones that you haven’t read yet (GoodReads helps with that :), but the books you’ve bought but haven’t read yet? Cyphomandra and I caught up on the weekend and started discussing this subject...I've decided to add an 'Unread' category to Stanza, which still works with the iPhone 6.1 update - YAH!

Which leads me to...Marvin. I'm guessing not many of you read on your iPhone/iPad, but over the weekend I discovered a new ePub app for the iPad - Marvin! There is no iPhone app...yet...but it looks like it might be a suitable (in my eyes :) replacement for Stanza! *fingers crossed* No idea if there is to be an Android option, but the developer appears to be open to suggestions on the forum I read about it on :)

Yesterday I finished reading Ilona Andrews' Gunmetal Magic. I adore that there is a gay character in the Kate Daniels series. And I love how seamlessly he appears and how seamlessly his orientation is accepted by the other characters. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like how various authors are…so open and inclusive (apologies - I'm having problems articulating this point). And I must say, I love Barbaras! And I want more of him. I also want more Derek. Obviously now I get to drool over Derek two-fold – in this series and in the Teen Wolf TV show. Which has me thinking of Stiles...

I can’t go a post without mentioning Sterek now, can I?

And finally...I think I’m going to reduce my GR challenge target to 75 books. I’m already, according to the ‘schedule’ six books behind….and since I’ll likely be reading more Sterek fanfic that won’t change…and I’d rather not put more pressure on myself to catch up… No thinking, I've done it! My GoodReads 2013 Reading Challenge total is now 75 books...which means I'm three books behind schedule... *heads desk*

I read on my android tablet (Google Nexus 7) and occasionally on my android phone. I was excited to discover that Moon+ Reader (epub, pdf, etc) syncs reading position to dropbox, so I can read on my phone and pick up where I left off on my tablet.

I use GRs to track both - if there's a book I want to read but don't own, it goes on my wishlist shelf (exclusive shelf). After I've purchased the book, I move it to my to-read shelf. You could easily create an exclusive want to read but don't have yet shelf to accomplish the same thing.

I do what Chris does on goodreads although sometimes I'm lazy when I add books and the ones I own AND the ones I don't own are all on the TBR shelf with no differentiation between owned or un-owned.

I read on an ipad and sometimes my phone. I mostly use ibooks or the kindle app on my idevices but I actually have a few others downloaded that I haven't explored much. I will check out Marvin! ;)

I'm several books behind in my GR challenge goal, too. I'll just keep plugging along and see what happens. :)

By the way, I have a friendly acquaintance who is competing this weekend [March 2] in the Ironman triathlon in Taupo, NZ. Totally random, but I've been thinking of her.. and consequently you, too, a lot lately. :)

I'm pretty excited for my friend. She just posted her first NZ photo on facebook the other evening. I hope she posts more. I'm so jealous!

I really want to spend a couple of hours organizing my books -- physical ones at home as well as my virtual shelves on goodreads. About 95% of my books are STILL in boxes from when we did our addition four years ago. I need more shelves.. Then again, when they're hidden in boxes I don't feel as bad about having 100s of books that I spent money on but have never read!